Table 2 Overall survival of the whole cohort at 3 years by surgical specimen (after chemotherapy) immune biomarker expression and overall survival for the subgroup of patients that failed to achieve pCR (no-pCR group)

 PD-L1

p = 0.0055

  Negative (IC0)

4/38

89.4%

70.6–96.5

  Positive (IC1/2/3)

9/28

57.4%

33.2–75.5

 TILs

p = 0.6312

  0–10%

6/35

79.6%

57.0–91.2

  > 10%

7/31

72.5%

50.6–85.9

 TIM-3

p = 0.0840

  < 1%

2/21

93.8%

63.2–99.1

  ≥ 1%

11/45

67.0%

48.0–80.5

 TIM-3

p = 0.0274

  0–4%

5/44

87.1%

68.6–95.1

  ≥ 5%

8/22

58.0%

33.1–76.4

 LAG-3

p = 0.7750

  0

2/11

88.9%

43.3–98.4

  > 0

11/55

73.5%

56.9–84.5

 PD-L1 and TIM-3

p = 0.0020

  Others

7/54

84.6%

68.5–92.9

  PD-L1+/TIM-3+

6/12

45.5%

16.7–70.7

 PD-L1

p = 0.1186

  Negative (IC0)

3/14

84.6%

51.2–95.9

  Positive (IC1/2/3)

8/23

58.0%

33.0–76.5

 TILs

p = 0.8008

  0–10%

5/16

72.0%

41.1–88.6

  > 10%

6/21

65.7%

38.8–83.0

 TIM-3

p = 0.0702

  0–4%

3/20

88.7%

61.4–97.1

  ≥ 5%

8/17

50.0%

24.5–71.0

 PD-L1 and TIM-3

p = 0.0479

  Others

5/25

81.3%

57.3–92.6

  PD-L1+/TIM-3+

6/12

45.5%

16.7–70.7